If you are studying at a University level, maybe you will find these five outstanding thesis statements helpful for “Souls Belated” by Edith Wharton. These statements can be used as essay starters or paper topics. All five incorporate at least one of the themes in "Souls Belated" and are broad enough so that it will be easy to find textual support, yet narrow enough to provide a focused clear thesis statement. These thesis statements offer a short summary of “Souls Belated” by Edith Wharton in terms of different elements that could be important in an essay. You are, of course, free to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them for your essay. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of important quotes from “Souls Belated” at the bottom of the page, you should have no trouble connecting with the text and writing an excellent essay. Before the statements, you will find, of course, listen to the short story “Souls Belated” by Edith Wharton, included in her earliest published collection of short stories The Greater Inclination.

Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #1: Marriage in Souls Belated.

Perhaps the biggest theme in Souls Belated is the issue of marriage and its dissolution. Written during a time when divorce was far less common and accepted than it is today, marriage was a covenant that was viewed as sacred by many of Lydia’s contemporaries. By choosing to shun the institution of marriage and by refusing to marry Gannett, Lydia is making a strong commentary on the very idea of marriage. Lydia does not want to be with Gannett because she is forced to do so by a piece of paper and a blessing from a priest, but rather because she chooses to do so everyday. In what ways do her ideas differ from those of the women around her? How is her marriage to Tillotson different than her relationship with Gannett?

In "Souls Belated" by Edith Wharton, we are first as reader's made to ask the question, "Why don't Lydia and Gannett want to be alone in the train together? Why did neither of them wish to speak to the other" So, who knows what? Lydia as Gannett know what happened in their past; we as readers do not. The reader understands that they have a past, we are just not sure of what it may be and when it began.

How does Lydia describe marriage? It could spoil everything between them. She said it was because she cared too much--yet neither one of them (Lydia or Gannet) believed in the 'sacredness' of marriage. The thought was that no ceremony was needed to bond their love together.

Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #2: Isolation in Souls Belated.

While everyone in Souls Belated is paired with a significant other whom they find to be their soul mate, it seems as if all the characters are incredibly alone. The opening scene, where Gannett and Lydia are in the train, they are portrayed as having something far greater than a seat cushion separating them. Although the physical distance between the characters is minimal, the emotional and spiritual difference is vast. Lydia even says that they have been at the villa for three months, but Gannett and herself have not talked about the ever growing chasm in their relationship. How is this isolation portrayed through imagery throughout the text? What is the point of showing these characters as lonely? Is Wharton perhaps making the statement that marriage is not the solution?

In Edith Wharton’s Souls Belated, the main character, Lydia, sees herself as rebelling against the suffocating nature of her society. She leaves a marriage that she feels is merely for show, for a writer who can show her the world, and with whom she can share her thoughts. Lydia refuses to marry Gannett, because she believes that if he marries her, it will be because he feels as if he has to, and that their marriage will be nothing more than a sham. In her final defiant act in “Souls Belated”, Lydia tells Gannett that the only way they can live and not be liars is if she leaves him. She goes off towards the loading docks to catch a boat, but at the end, turns away. She admits to herself and to Gannett that she has become everything that she despised before, this is, a hypocrital.

Was Lydia’s rebellion ever an actual rebellion, or was it just a façade that she put up to justify her inner beliefs and desires? What is Edith Wharton saying about social convention in “Souls Belated” and those who try to break it? To what degree do the different views of social conformity depend on their genders, do you think?

In the beginning of Edith Wharton’s Souls Belated, the women seem very different. Lydia is determined not to live life by the conventions that she feels have been thrust upon her, and therefore refuses to marry Gannett. Lady Susan makes up her own rules, and decides who will and will not be welcomed in the villa, while the rest of the ladies living there obey her wishes. Mrs. Cope was similar to Lydia, in that she was also shunning convention by getting a divorce, but she was far more worried about her relationship with Trevenna than Lydia was in regards to Gannett. In which ways is Mrs. Cope a foil to Lydia? How do the relationships between the women vary?

A list of important quotations from Souls Belated.

This list of important quotations from “Souls Belated” by Edith Wharton will help you work with the essay topics and thesis statements above by allowing you to support your claims. All of the important quotes from Wharton's “Souls Belated” listed here correspond, at least in some way, to the paper topics above and by themselves can give you great ideas for an essay by offering quotes and explanations about other themes, symbols, imagery, and motifs in this short story than those already mentioned and explained. Aside from the thesis statements above, these quotes alone can act as essay questions or study questions as they are all relevant to the text in an important way. All quotes contain page numbers as well. Look at the bottom of the page to identify which edition of the text by Edith Wharton they are referring to.

" [...] Lydia's eye regretfully [...] then she glanced across at Gannett and caught the same regret in his look. They were both sorry to be alone." (p. 83)

" [...] she was free ; and not so much (she had begun to be aware) that freedom had released her from Tillotson as that it had given her to Gannett. This discovery had not been agreeable to her self-esteem." (p. 86)

Her husband did not understand why she wanted to be independent or why she was concerned about equality:

"She had preferred to think that Tillotson had himself embodied all her reasons for leaving him" (p. 86)

Other men had not understood neither why Lydia wanted to be independent or was concerned with equality:

"[...] and those he represented had seemed cogent enough to stand in no need of reinforcement." (p. 86)

Lydia had put up with her husband during a long time, but she met a lover who was different: 'you can be satisfied in knowing that if she is with you, it's by her choice, because she wants to be with you, rather than because she feels she needs to be with you- She is simply seeing if you are a guy that can handle her independence. She wants to know that you will encourage it, nurture it, rather than overrun it, or try to take it away from her:

"[...] she had not left him till she met Gannett. It was her love for Gannett that had made life
with Tillotson so poor and incomplete a business. [...] Before she met Gannett her life had seemed merely dull; his coming made it appear like one of those dismal Cruikshank prints in which the people are all ugly and all engaged in occupations
that are either vulgar or stupid. [...] Gannett's nearness had made her husband ridiculous, and a part of the ridicule had been reflected on herself." (pp. 86-89)

If Lydia had not seen marriage as an obstacle towards emancipation, then she would have been with her husband:

"If she had never, from the first, regarded her marriage as a full cancelling of her claims upon life, she had at least, for a number of years, accepted it as a provisional compensation." (p. 87)

Being in an adulterous-relationship was a sin in Victorian society:

"[...] to do anything unexpected was as foolish as going out in the rain." (p. 87)

The advantages of being rich and confortable:

"One of the chief advantages of being rich was that one need not be exposed to unforeseen contingencies." (p. 87)

Her husband was a 'soul belated' as he never protested against societal norms::

"Tillotson (a model son who had never given his parents an hour's anxiety)." (p. 87)

A rural girl, Lydia, has accepted marriage in exchange of confortable rich life ::

"Lydia, coming from a smaller town, and entering New York life through the portals of the Tillotson mansion, had mechanically accepted this point of view as inseparable from having a front pew in church and a parterre box at the opera." (p. 88)

She began cuckolding her husband ::

"It was natural that Tillotson should be the chief sufferer from this readjustment of focus." (p. 88)

Lydia had to realize that she really wanted to be free ::

"Her tolerance laid her open to a suspicion of obtuseness from which she must, at all costs, clear herself in Gannett's eyes." (p. 89)

She has been set free, but is she really free? ::

"It was when she saw that she had left her husband only to be with Gannett that she perceived the significance of anything affecting their relations. [...] Her husband, in casting her off, had virtually flung her at Gannett: it was thus that the world viewed it." (p. 89)

Euphemism in the short story: 'the thing,' or divorce ::

"The men would probably back Gannett to "do the decent thing" [...]." (p. 89)

Women were macho entities ::

"[...] the ladies' eye-brows would emphasize the worthlessness of such enforced fidelity." (p. 89)

Men married women only to pretend, to save the poor girl, but she saw herself as a self-sufficient woman. Being Gannett the reason of her leaving her husband, she owed him something. He had been "the instrument of her liberation," and owing means being slave to that person ::

"She had put herself in a position where Gannett " owed " her something; where, as a gentleman, he was bound to "stand the damage." The idea of accepting such compensation had never crossed her mind; the so-called rehabilitation of such a marriage had always seemed to her the only real disgrace." (pp. 89-90)

Marrying Gannett was not her purpose of being with him ::

"[...] their voluntary fellowship should be transformed into a bondage the more wearing
that it was based on none of those common obligations which make the most imperfect marriage in some sort a center of gravity." (p. 89)

Lydia does not see why she should live with Gannett in a place like that hotel : ::

"[...] Je n'en vois pas la nécessité. [...] I cannot see that there is any need to (live there)." (p. 92)

She just want to have Gannett as her lover and that's it : ::

"[...] Why not live everywhere, as we have been doing? [...] Why should we make plans? I thought you agreed with me that it's pleasanter to drift." (p. 92)

Gannett wants a conventional life, married ::

"[...] But we can't travel forever, can we? [...] For the rest of our lives then." (p. 92)

Her body language shows that she does not want to get married ::

"She made a slight gesture which caused his hand to slip from hers." (p. 93)

She is explicit about not getting married because it is loosing her freedom ::

"But I don't want to marry you! she cried." (p. 95)

She realized that maybe he is not thiking of marriage ::

"[...] "I suppose I shall have to get at my work again some day. You know I haven't written a line since—all this time," he hastily emended. [...] She flamed with sympathy and self-reproach. "Oh, if you mean that—if you want to write—of course we must settle down. How stupid of me not to have thought of it sooner! Where shall we go? Where do you think you could work best? We oughtn't to lose any more time." (p. 93)

Is he asking her to be submissive? ::

"I thought that just at first you might prefer to be—" She faced him. "To be what?" "Well—quiet. I mean—" "I mean after we are married." (p. 94)

Lydia thought that Garnett thought she just wanted to be his lover ::

"I thought you understood," she moaned. Their eyes met and she moved back to his side." (p. 94)

Being divorced, she can't no longer be his lover, but wife ::

"That hateful paper came to spoil everything between us!." (p. 94)

Garnett does not understand what freedom means ::

"Aren't you glad to be free?." [...] "I was free before." "You were not free" "Not to marry me," he suggested." (pp. 94-95)

Ralph Garnett thinks she used him only to get divorced ::

"[...] Or was I simply a—an excuse for getting away?" (p. 95)

Lydia asks Garnett to be in her shoes, to adopt a feminist stance ::

"[...] Try to feel it as a woman would!" (p. 95)

Lydia's opinion about marriage ::

"We neither of us believe in the abstract 'sacredness' of marriage; we both know that no ceremony is needed to consecrate our love for each other; what object can we have in marrying, except the secret fear of each that the
other may escape, or the secret longing to work our way back gradually—oh, very gradually—into the esteem of the people whose conventional morality we have always ridiculed and hated?" (pp. 95-96)

Garnett's views on marriage ::

"You judge things too theoretically," he said at length, slowly. "Life is made up of compromises."
"I didn't know that we ran away to found a new system of ethics. I supposed it was because we loved each other." (p. 96)

Lydia's reflection on marriage ::

"If they are right—if marriage is sacred in itself and the individual must always be sacrificed to the family—then there can be no real marriage between us, since our—our being together is a protest against the sacrifice of the individual to the family." (pp. 96-97)

Leaving marriage is more ethical than pretending ::

"[...] but at least one need n't pretend, for social advantages, to subscribe to a creed that ignores the complexity of human motives [...]." (p. 97)

Lydia's reflections about conventions ::

"[...] It may be necessary that the world should be ruled by conventions—but if we believed in them, why did we break through them? And if we don't believe in them, is it honest to take advantage of the protection they afford?" (p. 97)

Some men are afraid of intelectual independent women ::

"He looked at her hopelessly. Nothing is more perplexing to man than the mental process of a woman who reasons her emotions." (p. 97)

Lydia is self-concious that she is smart ::

"She thought she had scored a point and followed it up passionately." (p. 97)

They are together because they want to, not because they must. Lydia asks him to not mention the word marriage again ::

"Promise me you'll never speak of it again; promise me you'll never think of it even," she implored, with a tearful prodigality of italics." (p. 98)

Garnett accepts to not mention marriage again but without understanding why ::

"[...] his final unconvinced submission to her wishes." (p. 98)

Gannett seems to be not intelligent and Lydia seems to not think logical ::

"They had reached that memorable point in every heart-history when, for the first time, the man seems obtuse and the woman irrational." (p. 98)

Lydia was content because he wanted to, even though he did not understand why ::

"It was the abundance of his intentions that consoled her." (p. 98)

It would have been worse to note that he understand her? ironically? ::

"After all, it would have been worse, incalculably worse, to have detected any overreadiness to understand her." (p. 98)

At the hotel, Gannett begins to be absent, why? ::

"With a relief that was half painful she noticed that, for the first time since they had been together, he was hardly aware of her presence." (p. 98)

The story could be defined as a journey story in both the literal and metaphorical senses. Why have they been traveling? There is a sense of change not only in the characters, but in the relationship ::

"Lydia was glad that they were not, as usual, to pass from one solitude to another. Their wanderings during the year had indeed been like the flight of outlaws : through Sicily, Dalmatia, Transylvania and Southern Italy they had persisted in their tacit avoidance of their kind." (p. 98)

Note that it is Lydia who decides to stay at the hotel where he will write. Why does she do so? ::

Lydia takes the initiative, which was something women were not suppose to do during that time ::

" "You must begin tomorrow!" she cried, hiding a tremor under the laugh with which she added,
"I wonder if there's any ink in the inkstand?". " (p. 102)

A man who accepts what contemporary society dictates; very different than Gannett ::

"Mr. and Mrs. Linton sauntered by; the lady with tempestuous brows and challenging chin; the gentleman, a blond stripling, trailing after her, head downward, like a reluctant child dragged by his nurse." (p. 105)

Lydia and Gannett behave as if they were husband and wife during the two months they had been at the hotel. Lydia realizes that she has been passive and that she has to be more active ::

"She had to deal with herself first. She was surprised to find how, in the last months, she had lost the habit of introspection. Since their coming to the Hotel Bellosguardo she and Gannett had tacitly avoided them selves and each other." (p. 113)

Mrs. Cope is getting married with her lover. Marriage is an ideal ::

"If ever a woman got what she wanted just in the nick of time that woman did. She'll be Lady Trevenna within a week, I'll wager." " (p. 117)

Lydia is afraid of Lady Susan, or society, finding out that she lives in an adulterous relationship ::

" "This—this risk of being found out. And we could hardly count again on such a lucky combination of chances, could we?" " (p. 118)

Lydia realizes that she has been hypocrital and is willing to tell the others about her lover, despite the consequences ::

" [...] the first day I laid eyes on you I saw that you and I were both in the same box. And "[s]he left [her] the choice of telling it [herself] or of doing it for [her]." "[...] "Still keeping her face toward the darkness, she said, "I want you to go and tell Lady Susan—and the others." " (pp. 112, 118)

Lydia is tired of been hypocrital ::

" "Because I've behaved basely, abominably, since we came here: letting these people believe
we were married—lying with every breath I drew—" " (p. 119)

Gannett is also tired of been hypocrital ::

" "Yes, I've felt that too," Gannett exclaimed with sudden energy" "Of course I have." He spoke with low-voiced vehemence. "Do you suppose I like playing the sneak any better than you do? It's damnable." " (p. 119)

Lydia has been only pretending ::

" "Oh, do you see the full derision of it? These people—the very prototypes of the bores you took me away from, with the same fenced-in view of life, the same keep-off-the-grass morality, the same little cautious virtues and the same little frightened vices—well, I've clung to them, I've delighted in them, I've done my best to please them. I've toadied Lady Susan, I've gossiped with Miss Pinsent, I've pretended to be shocked with Mrs. Ainger. Respectability! It was the one thing in life that I was sure I didn't care about, and it's grown so precious to me that I've stolen it because I couldn't get it any other way." " (p. 120)

Getting married and pretending again is lying to herself ::

" "Then it's only another form of deception and a meaner one. Don't you see that?" " (p. 122)

Gannett is ashamed of pretending that she doesn't want to be his wife, not because he is her lover ::

For Lydia, marriage is not the solution, but just being together because they love each other ::

" "If I were your wife you'd have to go on pretending. You'd have to pretend that I'd never been—anything else. And our friends would have to pretend that they believed what you pretended." Gannett pulled off the sofa-tassel and flung it away. "You're impossible," he groaned. "It's not I—it's our being together that's impossible. I only want you to see that marriage won't help it." " (pp. 122-123)

Gannett insinuates that she cannot live alone, that she needs a companion to live happily ::

" "He sat motionless, staring at the tassel which lay at the other end of the room. At length some impulse of retaliation for the pain she was inflicting made him say deliberately: "And where would you go if you left me?" " (p. 123)

The only solution is to leave him, the same way she left her husband. The only solution is to leave him, the same way she left her husband. Gannett had promised her not mention the word marriage again, and yet here he was telling her to go to Paris and marry him ::

" "Lydia Lydia you know I didn't mean it; I couldn't mean it! But you've driven me out of my senses; I don't know what I'm saying. Can't you get out of this labyrinth of self-torture? It 's destroying us both." " (p. 123)

Gannett, nevertheless, sees Lydia as his equal ::

"He had never thought of her as a woman who wept and clung: there was a lucidity in her intuitions that made them appear to be the result of reasoning." (p. 125)

Gannett feels guilty of being her lover, and voices within him society's point of view: women has to accept marriage as a normal condition ::

"Now he saw the cruelty he had committed in detaching her from the normal conditions of life." (p. 125)

Altough Gannett could convince Lydia of not leaving, he didn't ::

"He had time to jump into his clothes and overtake her— " (p. 126)

Lydia, as the Hebraic myth Lilith, was strong-minded, as Gannett tought of her ::

"She asked so much of life, in ways so complex and immaterial." (p. 127)

He is struggling within him, he does not want to let her go, but he won’t stop her either ::

"Gannett involuntarily made a movement toward the door. But he turned back and continued to watch her." (p. 127)

Why does Lydia get off the boat? Does she get off the boat because she loves Gannet? If your response is that she will marry Gannett, where in the text do you find evidence of this? ::

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